Our view: All in all, a good record for Legislature

The Legislature wrapped up its business Friday with a long record of good bills, some awful ones and, as usual, a lot of bills tainted not by good governance but by good politics.

Missing this year is the rancor that tainted the last legislative session. House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, deserve credit for that. Clearly, the message of the 2012 elections that the GOP has become too driven by hard-core, unbending ideology got through to the leadership as well as the rank in file in the Legislature. That is a big deal, and they deserve credit for that.

Here’s a breakout of how we see the results of this Legislature, issue by issue:

■ Outlawing Internet sweepstakes. Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, led the charge on this. He was right. It’s a good law.

■ Banning texting while driving. Really, this is a no-brainer.

■ Enacting ethics reform. President Gaetz fought for this. He was right. We only wish it had contained rules requiring local elected officials to declare their business associates. Maybe next time.

■ Increasing money for public schools. After cutting school funding by $1.3 billion two years ago, and increasing it by $1 billion last year, for a net loss over two years, the Legislature has finally come through with a real raise for schools.

■ Accelerating the process for foreclosing on houses. Yes, we know this is tough on families losing their homes, but until the glut of foreclosed houses is cleared out, the housing market in Florida will not return to its earlier strength.

■ Returning to more sane voting rules. The previous Legislature deliberately limited early voting in a blatant political move to dampen Democratic voter turnout. That backfired, obviously, and the Legislature did the right thing of returning to more early voting days.

■ Changing high school graduation rules so that students who are not college bound can still earn a high school diploma. This corrects the flawed earlier laws the Legislature enacted that sought to steer all students into colleges.

■ Overturning legislation to give a St. Johns County developer an exemption from the anti-sprawl laws. Good call. Thanks again to Sen. Thrasher.

■ Enabling local distilleries to operate. St. Augustine Distillery became entangled in this when big distributors saw the little guys as threats. A compromise was reached, and these little businesses will get a chance now. Thanks to Rep. Ron “Doc” Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, for his role in this.

■ Giving pay raises for teachers and state workers. Don’t get us wrong: We think they all deserve raises, but the way the Legislature went about giving them dripped of politics. Teachers will get raises between $2,500 and $3,500, while state workers earning more than $40,000 will get $1,000 plus the possibility of a smaller bonus. The message here is clear: The Republican Legislature and the Republican governor discovered that their Republican constituents were upset at how they were short-changing public education. These pay raises for teachers have little to do with rewarding teachers and a lot to do with winning over suburban (and Republican) voters who like their public schools.

■ Overhauling the state pension system. It didn’t happen — a good thing — but it never should have been before the Legislature anyway. The goal was to shift all future state employees away from pensions into 401(k) plans. That has not worked in the private sector, where the average boomer has only saved a little for retirement. Why would the Legislature think it would work in the public sector? Thanks to the Senate for seeing the light.

■ Killing the Parent Trigger bill. This was never about empowering parents, it was about opening the door to private companies taking over public schools. The House passed it, but it died in the Senate. Kudos to Rep. Travis Hutson, R-Elkton, for bucking his party and voting against this.

■ Eliminating alimony for life passed the Legislature, but died when Gov. Rick Scott vetoed it. That’s a shame because the Legislature was correct. Critics say the governor was looking to increase his approval ratings with women voters.

■ Eliminating for three years the sales tax on manufacturing equipment. We agree with the governor that this is a good thing, but since any legislation that takes significant amounts of money out of local coffers needs a two-thirds vote of the Legislature (the House did not meet that standard), we think this will not stand up to a court challenge.

All in all, a good record. The one major wildcard is Medicaid reform. The House and Senate had two very different views on this and couldn’t come together. It will be interesting to see if the governor calls the Legislature into special session to deal with this. We think he should.